4 months gone and still feeling sad, A BSG comentary
so march 20th was almost four months ago and on that day my favorite show and tv obsession Battlestar Gallactica ended and i am still sad/disappointed/melancholy over how it ended, and the possibilities that were missed or totally shot to hell.
one thing that i have trouble doing is keeping my mouth shut, and my vitriol out of my words when talking about certain characters.......ok one character, but i'll talk about that later. i think the most disappointing thing to me, and what makes me the most sad, is the total marginalization of not only Lee Adama in the last half plus of season 4, but also the relationship and love between him and Kara Thrace. i hole heartedly admit to be a hopeless romantic and what sealed the deal on me watching this show from the miniseries on was the relationship between Lee and Kara.
From the beginning i was mesmerized by the beautiful Katee Sackhoff as Kara, and the smoldering chemistry between her and Jamie Bamber's Lee. when he pulls her out from under her viper in the mini i was struck by how much love i saw between them and i wanted to know why they were not married already. Then to find out that she was engaged to his brother and that she ran to his fathers ship to hide/morn when Lee clearly despised his father as so amazingly real and intreging i was hooked. I was also a shipper from then on.
Let me take a second to explain what type of shipper I am as i have a quirky and stubbornly strict mindset when it comes to fictional 'ships. I like one relationship for a character and that is it. I don't like when they find someone other than who i think is perfect for them. I think that they are making a huge mistake and that they could never ever be as happy or interesting as they could be with the person I feel they should be with. So i pick apart the relationship they have with the wrong person and I can tell you why they should not be with them. I will do a short version of this later.
Now back to why the ending of BSG saddened me. specifically i will talk about the ending of the K/L ship. firstly i have to say that the Final five story line was....interesting for about five minutes. the first "dropping of the ball" in this line was to use two uninteresting and unimportant characters and suddenly give them this kind of importance. it rings cheap and false to me when something like that happened.
first of all Tory. really? tory? she shows up out of the blue after Billy Kekaiya dies, ok i got that. she was a politico type of gopher who took over for Billy got that, but throughout Season two and three she was a "who the hell is that?" background character. then there was the string of four episodes that were either ok or horrible, specifically the episode with jocksmock and his giant head with a bullet in it. oh my god what a horrible episode. i think the final five focus totally detracted from the essence of the show. they almost completly cut out Lee for them and the path that Lee was taking was infinitely more interesting than the lame FF arc.
the second FF'er that had no importance, in my opinion, is a little touchy. Anders, henceforth called jocksmock. ug what a crappy character. uninteresting, uninspiring, boring. to have such importance thrust onto this character just smacks me in the face. oh and he stole Kara from Lee. I CALL BULLSHIT!!!
here is the point where i pick apart not only the relationship (if you can call a frak buddy that) between Kara and jocksmock, but jocksmock as a character himself.
Fist of all he was supposed to die on screen. According to one of the specials rdm said that jocksmock was supposed to die in the second episode that he appeared in. Yep the bastard is supposed to be dead. the reason why he isn't is reportedly that rdm saw the way the ACTORS NOT THE CHARACTERS acted around each other off screen.
Secondly he was kept because rdm saw how much the fans HATED him. yeah rdm kept him because he wanted to piss us, the fans, the people who watch his shows and earn his freaking money. he wanted to piss US off. yeah this makes me angry, he basically gave us all the finger and said fuck you to the fans. how do I know this? Watch the last frakkin special, micael trucco says it right there.
Now as far as the relationship between Kara and js, is sucks. yep it is a picture of not only an emotionally unfulfilling and, at times, emotionally abusive relationship, but a classic example of using someone to protect yourself from feeling vulnerable in a relationship where you feel so much for the other person that you fear that they could destroy you if they so wish it. ie he was a quick frak that turned into a shield for a REAL emotionally fulfilling and supportive relationship with Lee.
not only is the Kara js relationship emotionally abusive and nonexistant, but jocksmock is an enabler to an addictive, and self destructive person. this is one of my biggest (logical) arguments against the Kara js relationship. he is an enabler in the classic sense. he not only helps to reinforce he low self worth by not really loving him (no one will ever convince me that she does)but she feels guilty for marrying him, using him as her shield, after her night with Lee on new caprica. here is my proof. in the Demetrious arc when he comes to her to verbally brow beat her into explaining herself she tells him that he was the easy choice, that she doesnt love him before giving in to sex so that she can feel which did not work.
he is also an enabler because he brings out and reinforces all of her addictions. For instance, everything he does has to be a party. all he wants to do is have fun, drink, gamble smoke have sex. forget all the problems of the world anytime all the time. if you havent figured it out Kara is an alcoholic. and in most cases not a nice one. she drinks to forget her guilt over Zak, over whjat she feels for Lee, over how she uses js, over the lives of the pilots she trains and grooms as her children who go out and die everyday. so instead of being supportive and helping her come to terms with all that guilt, shame, and sadness what does jocksmock want? to drink, to party to have sexd and a good time! just forget that you passed an unqualified pilot because you loved him and did not want to take his dream away. forget that the only reason you are with me is because you fear that you are not worthy enough because of your crazy ass abusive mother, for the love of your life, your soulmate, that you are so scared that you will kill him because you think you are a screw up. lets forget that you feel responsible for every kid that you think of as your own when they go out to fight the evil robots and die. yeah lets go party, lets drink some more and have a happy marriage.
he doesnt want her to be better. he doesnt want her to forgive herself of her guilt. he doesnt want her to grow and evolve and shed off all of the crap that her mother put her through. no he wants her to party, and drink, and frak and pat attention to him. and that is the key element. he wants her to pay attention to HIM. not heal her hearty and soul, no because if she does that, if she finds that what her mother said is crap from a crazy, lonely, mean woman, then she would have the strength to look at him and realize that she deserves better, that SHE can be better, that she does not have to fear what she feels for someone that she will not destroy them, and if they realy love her, they would cherish and support her as well and not need her to pay all of her attention to him.
you know who i think is that perfect man. Lee Adama. yes they piss each other off, yes they hit each other (she is his equal and hits him first). but through it all you can see and FEEL the love for each other that radiates off of them. Lee calls her on her bullshit. he supports her no matter what. he wants her to be better. he believes that she can be better. look at everything he does, he hates her drinking because he knows what it does to her. it keeps her from being not only the best, because she is that anyway, but if she wasn't always hungover how good do you think she COULD be. he believes in her unequivocally, and trusts her just the same. he knows how losing her nuggets hurts her to the core and tries to help her. he also knows, when she hurt him the most, that she was doing it because she was scared of what they could be. and through it all, he loves her. he loves her so much that she is the only one that can break through that cold shell that he had to build around himself to keep from getting hurt, but she is the only on that can truly hurt him.
When she comes back Lee is the only one that believes not only her, but believes IN her. even js doesnt do that. all he can think about is if she will still be with him if she knew that he was a cylon. when she finds the signal Lee is the one to take the leap of faith in HER, not anyone else.
I believe that when a person loves someone that try to make them better, they want them to be better not for themselves, but for the person that they love, so that they can be complete and feel better of themselves. Lee does that for Kara, she was to scared to see it and took it as not being good enough for him, but Lee loved her no matter what.
So when i think about how the show ended, i mostly think about how the ship between Lee and Kara ended. because they were the microcosm of the show. They epitomized what i thought the show was supposed to be about, over coming and learning from your past in order to live in peace with your future. but all that was thrown away, were were given that complex, beautiful, sometimes painful relationship for six years and over three seasons and rdm gave us the finger again.
so yes, four months after it ended, I am still saddened and angry and upset over how the show ended. so much potential gone in a poof.
one thing that i have trouble doing is keeping my mouth shut, and my vitriol out of my words when talking about certain characters.......ok one character, but i'll talk about that later. i think the most disappointing thing to me, and what makes me the most sad, is the total marginalization of not only Lee Adama in the last half plus of season 4, but also the relationship and love between him and Kara Thrace. i hole heartedly admit to be a hopeless romantic and what sealed the deal on me watching this show from the miniseries on was the relationship between Lee and Kara.
From the beginning i was mesmerized by the beautiful Katee Sackhoff as Kara, and the smoldering chemistry between her and Jamie Bamber's Lee. when he pulls her out from under her viper in the mini i was struck by how much love i saw between them and i wanted to know why they were not married already. Then to find out that she was engaged to his brother and that she ran to his fathers ship to hide/morn when Lee clearly despised his father as so amazingly real and intreging i was hooked. I was also a shipper from then on.
Let me take a second to explain what type of shipper I am as i have a quirky and stubbornly strict mindset when it comes to fictional 'ships. I like one relationship for a character and that is it. I don't like when they find someone other than who i think is perfect for them. I think that they are making a huge mistake and that they could never ever be as happy or interesting as they could be with the person I feel they should be with. So i pick apart the relationship they have with the wrong person and I can tell you why they should not be with them. I will do a short version of this later.
Now back to why the ending of BSG saddened me. specifically i will talk about the ending of the K/L ship. firstly i have to say that the Final five story line was....interesting for about five minutes. the first "dropping of the ball" in this line was to use two uninteresting and unimportant characters and suddenly give them this kind of importance. it rings cheap and false to me when something like that happened.
first of all Tory. really? tory? she shows up out of the blue after Billy Kekaiya dies, ok i got that. she was a politico type of gopher who took over for Billy got that, but throughout Season two and three she was a "who the hell is that?" background character. then there was the string of four episodes that were either ok or horrible, specifically the episode with jocksmock and his giant head with a bullet in it. oh my god what a horrible episode. i think the final five focus totally detracted from the essence of the show. they almost completly cut out Lee for them and the path that Lee was taking was infinitely more interesting than the lame FF arc.
the second FF'er that had no importance, in my opinion, is a little touchy. Anders, henceforth called jocksmock. ug what a crappy character. uninteresting, uninspiring, boring. to have such importance thrust onto this character just smacks me in the face. oh and he stole Kara from Lee. I CALL BULLSHIT!!!
here is the point where i pick apart not only the relationship (if you can call a frak buddy that) between Kara and jocksmock, but jocksmock as a character himself.
Fist of all he was supposed to die on screen. According to one of the specials rdm said that jocksmock was supposed to die in the second episode that he appeared in. Yep the bastard is supposed to be dead. the reason why he isn't is reportedly that rdm saw the way the ACTORS NOT THE CHARACTERS acted around each other off screen.
Secondly he was kept because rdm saw how much the fans HATED him. yeah rdm kept him because he wanted to piss us, the fans, the people who watch his shows and earn his freaking money. he wanted to piss US off. yeah this makes me angry, he basically gave us all the finger and said fuck you to the fans. how do I know this? Watch the last frakkin special, micael trucco says it right there.
Now as far as the relationship between Kara and js, is sucks. yep it is a picture of not only an emotionally unfulfilling and, at times, emotionally abusive relationship, but a classic example of using someone to protect yourself from feeling vulnerable in a relationship where you feel so much for the other person that you fear that they could destroy you if they so wish it. ie he was a quick frak that turned into a shield for a REAL emotionally fulfilling and supportive relationship with Lee.
not only is the Kara js relationship emotionally abusive and nonexistant, but jocksmock is an enabler to an addictive, and self destructive person. this is one of my biggest (logical) arguments against the Kara js relationship. he is an enabler in the classic sense. he not only helps to reinforce he low self worth by not really loving him (no one will ever convince me that she does)but she feels guilty for marrying him, using him as her shield, after her night with Lee on new caprica. here is my proof. in the Demetrious arc when he comes to her to verbally brow beat her into explaining herself she tells him that he was the easy choice, that she doesnt love him before giving in to sex so that she can feel which did not work.
he is also an enabler because he brings out and reinforces all of her addictions. For instance, everything he does has to be a party. all he wants to do is have fun, drink, gamble smoke have sex. forget all the problems of the world anytime all the time. if you havent figured it out Kara is an alcoholic. and in most cases not a nice one. she drinks to forget her guilt over Zak, over whjat she feels for Lee, over how she uses js, over the lives of the pilots she trains and grooms as her children who go out and die everyday. so instead of being supportive and helping her come to terms with all that guilt, shame, and sadness what does jocksmock want? to drink, to party to have sexd and a good time! just forget that you passed an unqualified pilot because you loved him and did not want to take his dream away. forget that the only reason you are with me is because you fear that you are not worthy enough because of your crazy ass abusive mother, for the love of your life, your soulmate, that you are so scared that you will kill him because you think you are a screw up. lets forget that you feel responsible for every kid that you think of as your own when they go out to fight the evil robots and die. yeah lets go party, lets drink some more and have a happy marriage.
he doesnt want her to be better. he doesnt want her to forgive herself of her guilt. he doesnt want her to grow and evolve and shed off all of the crap that her mother put her through. no he wants her to party, and drink, and frak and pat attention to him. and that is the key element. he wants her to pay attention to HIM. not heal her hearty and soul, no because if she does that, if she finds that what her mother said is crap from a crazy, lonely, mean woman, then she would have the strength to look at him and realize that she deserves better, that SHE can be better, that she does not have to fear what she feels for someone that she will not destroy them, and if they realy love her, they would cherish and support her as well and not need her to pay all of her attention to him.
you know who i think is that perfect man. Lee Adama. yes they piss each other off, yes they hit each other (she is his equal and hits him first). but through it all you can see and FEEL the love for each other that radiates off of them. Lee calls her on her bullshit. he supports her no matter what. he wants her to be better. he believes that she can be better. look at everything he does, he hates her drinking because he knows what it does to her. it keeps her from being not only the best, because she is that anyway, but if she wasn't always hungover how good do you think she COULD be. he believes in her unequivocally, and trusts her just the same. he knows how losing her nuggets hurts her to the core and tries to help her. he also knows, when she hurt him the most, that she was doing it because she was scared of what they could be. and through it all, he loves her. he loves her so much that she is the only one that can break through that cold shell that he had to build around himself to keep from getting hurt, but she is the only on that can truly hurt him.
When she comes back Lee is the only one that believes not only her, but believes IN her. even js doesnt do that. all he can think about is if she will still be with him if she knew that he was a cylon. when she finds the signal Lee is the one to take the leap of faith in HER, not anyone else.
I believe that when a person loves someone that try to make them better, they want them to be better not for themselves, but for the person that they love, so that they can be complete and feel better of themselves. Lee does that for Kara, she was to scared to see it and took it as not being good enough for him, but Lee loved her no matter what.
So when i think about how the show ended, i mostly think about how the ship between Lee and Kara ended. because they were the microcosm of the show. They epitomized what i thought the show was supposed to be about, over coming and learning from your past in order to live in peace with your future. but all that was thrown away, were were given that complex, beautiful, sometimes painful relationship for six years and over three seasons and rdm gave us the finger again.
so yes, four months after it ended, I am still saddened and angry and upset over how the show ended. so much potential gone in a poof.